Job 17:16 kjv
They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Job 17:16 nkjv
Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?"
Job 17:16 niv
Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?"
Job 17:16 esv
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?"
Job 17:16 nlt
No, my hope will go down with me to the grave.
We will rest together in the dust!"
Job 17 16 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Gen 3:19 | By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread... for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. | Human mortality and return to dust. |
| Job 10:9 | Remember that you have made me as clay... will you return me to dust again? | Job's acknowledgment of his mortal creation. |
| Job 14:7-10 | For there is hope for a tree... but a man dies and is laid low... where is he? | Man's hopeless state after death compared to nature. |
| Job 19:25-27 | For I know that my Redeemer lives... yet in my flesh I shall see God. | Job's contrasting momentary glimmer of hope in a redeemer. |
| Psa 6:5 | For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise? | Sheol as a place of no conscious praise or remembrance. |
| Psa 30:9 | What profit is there in my death... Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? | Similar query about the dead praising God from the dust. |
| Psa 39:4-5 | ...know how fleeting my life is! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths... | The brevity and transience of human life. |
| Psa 49:14 | Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd... | All mortals face the inevitability of death and Sheol. |
| Psa 88:10-12 | Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? | Questions on the lack of activity or praise in the realm of the dead. |
| Psa 90:3 | You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" | God's sovereignty over humanity's mortality. |
| Psa 103:14 | For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. | God's understanding of human weakness and mortality. |
| Psa 104:29 | When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. | The cessation of life and return to elemental state. |
| Psa 146:4 | When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. | Human plans and thoughts ceasing at death. |
| Ecc 3:20 | All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. | The common destiny of all living beings returning to dust. |
| Ecc 9:10 | Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might... no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol. | No earthly activity or thought exists in Sheol. |
| Isa 38:18 | For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you... | Reinforces the perception of silence and inactivity in Sheol. |
| Dan 12:2 | And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake... | Prophecy of a future awakening (resurrection) from dust. |
| Jn 5:28-29 | Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice. | Christ's authority to bring forth those in graves. |
| Jn 11:25-26 | Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." | Christ as the ultimate hope beyond death. |
| 1 Cor 15:53-54 | For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality... Death is swallowed up in victory. | The triumph over death and perishable nature through resurrection. |
| 2 Cor 5:1 | For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God... | Hope of a heavenly dwelling beyond the earthly body. |
| Php 1:21-23 | For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain... My desire is to depart and be with Christ... | Believer's hope of immediate presence with Christ after death. |
| Rev 1:18 | I am the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. | Christ's supreme authority over death and the grave. |
Job 17 verses
Job 17 16 Meaning
Job 17:16 expresses Job's profound despair and his conviction that his hope will not survive beyond his death. He perceives death as a final descent into the grave, or Sheol, a place from which there is no return, and where all earthly prospects and aspirations cease to exist. His hope, intertwined with his very being, will perish and dissolve into the dust with him. This statement reflects his limited understanding of life beyond the grave from his human perspective, steeped in immense suffering and feeling abandoned.
Job 17 16 Context
Job 17 is part of Job’s third cycle of discourse, where he laments his suffering and debates with his friends. Having just proclaimed that his spirit is broken and his days are extinguished (Job 17:1), Job now continues his cry of utter despair. He feels alienated by God, tormented by his friends, and overwhelmed by physical pain. His words are marked by a sense of isolation and foreboding. Verse 15 immediately precedes verse 16, stating, "Where then is my hope? Who would see my hope?" This sets the stage for the rhetorical questions in verse 16, where Job asserts that his hope, having vanished in life, will certainly not survive his impending death. He believes his earthly future is irrevocably linked to his mortality, leaving no room for any earthly vindication or renewal beyond the grave.
Job 17 16 Word analysis
- Will it go down / Shall they go down? (הֲאֶל־בַּדֵּי, ha'el-badde): This phrase poses a rhetorical question, expressing Job's resigned conviction. "Will it go down" implies an irreversible descent, the sinking of all expectations into the abyss of death. It indicates that his hope, which is the "it" (referring back to "my hope" in v. 15), has no alternative but to share his fate. The choice of "they" in some translations stems from a plural form associated with "bars," but the clear intent relates to Job's singular hope.
- bars (בַּדֵּי, badde): Meaning "bars" or "poles," used in the sense of bonds or strong fastenings. It evokes an image of a prison or a secure, inescapable enclosure. When applied to Sheol, it signifies the grave as a final, inescapable confinement, sealing one in a realm from which there is no escape or return in the normal course of life. It emphasizes the absolute finality of the grave for Job.
- Sheol (שְׁאוֹל, she'ol): The common Old Testament term for the realm of the dead, often translated as "the grave," "the pit," or "the underworld." It is typically depicted as a dark, silent, and inactive place where all people, righteous and wicked, eventually go. For Job, Sheol represents the cessation of all earthly existence, plans, and, crucially, hope. It is not generally depicted as a place of torment or reward in the Old Testament, but rather as the universal destiny of humanity upon death, ending conscious activity and memory.
- Will we descend together (עִמִּי יֵחַת, immi yechath): "Together with me it shall descend" or "we shall descend together." This powerfully conveys the intertwining of Job's being and his hope. He sees no possibility of his hope outliving him. If he goes into the grave, his hope inevitably accompanies him, signifying its complete obliteration in death.
- dust (עָפָר, aphar): A highly symbolic term in the Old Testament. It represents human origin (formed from the dust of the ground, Gen 2:7) and ultimate return (to dust you shall return, Gen 3:19). It signifies mortality, decay, insignificance, and the physical decomposition that occurs in the grave. Descending into the dust implies a return to basic elements, emphasizing the perishable and temporal nature of human life and all its endeavors.
- "bars of Sheol": This phrase pictorially describes Sheol as an impenetrable dungeon. The "bars" convey the idea of an enclosed space, from which there is no escape. This metaphor reinforces the finality of death in Job's perception, suggesting that once one enters, all connections to life and its hopes are irreversibly cut off.
- "Will we descend together into the dust?": This rhetorical question highlights Job's resigned acceptance that his hope, having found no place in the world of the living, must surely die with him and turn to decay in the ground. The combined descent into the "dust" emphasizes the shared fate of Job's physical being and his spiritual hope. It means not just burial, but disintegration.
Job 17 16 Bonus section
Job's statements in Job 17, particularly this verse, reflect a common Old Testament understanding of Sheol as a realm of inactivity and no return, predating fuller revelations about resurrection and eternal life. His despair is complete, not merely over physical death but the death of any expectation or vindication beyond it. This lament can be juxtaposed with Job's own, albeit momentary, outburst of faith in Job 19:25-27, where he declares his conviction in a living Redeemer who will stand upon the earth and that he, in his flesh, will see God. This internal tension in Job's character illustrates the ebb and flow of faith and doubt when faced with immense, unexplainable suffering. His current mindset represents the nadir of his earthly hopes.
Job 17 16 Commentary
Job 17:16 is a poignant expression of ultimate despair in the face of death. Job, experiencing overwhelming suffering and rejection, feels utterly hopeless. He rhetorically asks if his hope—his expectation of future vindication or alleviation—will descend into the grave (Sheol) with him, a realm characterized by "bars" implying an inescapable prison. His follow-up question, "Will we descend together into the dust?", underscores his belief that both his being and his hope are bound for utter decay and annihilation. For Job at this point, death signifies the end of all earthly concerns and possibilities. This verse strikingly contrasts with the Christian hope of resurrection and eternal life, where death is not the final word but a gateway to a transformed existence. It reminds us of humanity's natural limitations and the essential role of God's revelation to transcend the apparent finality of the grave.